Dec 14, 2023. Posted by Balkan Periscope - Hellas
Struga.
Albania is
set to return a total of 20 icons stolen from Slavic churches to North
Macedonia on Friday, as part of a cooperation agreement signed by the two
countries in 2022.
The team working on the project confirmed the report for MIA, further details will be announced once the icons enter the country.
“For
the first time in the history of our country, a successful restitution of
cultural heritage is being carried out thanks to the good cooperation between
the governments and the culture ministries of North Macedonia and Albania,”
said the Ministry of Culture.
According
to Culture Minister Bisera Kostadinovska-Stojchevska, the icons will be
transported to the Museum of North Macedonia, where they will be exhibited, and
then returned to the Slav-Macedonian Orthodox Church.
The
procedure for the restitution of the icons began in 2013, with intensive
activities over the last two years.
In the
period between 2009 and 2013 there was a wave of forced entries into churches,
especially in the western and southwestern parts of North Macedonia, during
which hundreds of icons were taken away.
The icons
were accidentally spotted by Macedonian experts in 2013, in a video with
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama that aired on Albanian TV.
In a
symbolic move, Prime Minister Rama handed over one of the stolen icons to the
Prime Minister of North Macedonia, Dimitar Kovachevski, during the signing of
the agreement for their restitution in 2022 in Skopje.
The
completion of the process for the restitution of the 20 stolen icons is
expected to be followed by a new process for the restitution of an additional
set of identified icons in Albania.
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